CAIRO, Dec.18 (Aswat Masriya) - Egypt’s irrigation minister expressed rejection of the Entebbe agreement and said “we will not sign it in its current form”.

In comments made to Al-Akhbar newspaper in its Friday issue, water and irrigation minister Hossam Moghazi said the agreement denies Egypt the right to be notified in advance if a Nile Basin country plans to establish any project on the River Nile.

Egypt has vocally opposed the agreement which came into effect in February 2011 when Burundi signed it. The agreement required the approval of six member states and before February 2011 only Ethiopia, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and Kenya had signed on.

In 2013, South Sudan signed the agreement as well.

For decades, Egypt has been receiving 55 billion cubic meters of the Nile river's water annually, the largest share, as per agreements signed in the past century in the absence of Ethiopia, whose Blue Nile tributary supplies most of the Nile's water.

Moghazi said that signing the Entebbe deal without the consensus of all Nile basin countries denies Egypt constants, which needs to be resolved. He said Egypt is ready for dialogue that takes into account the points of contention.

Last week saw talks between the water and foreign ministers of Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan, dubbed in the Egyptian media the six-way talks which ended without reaching an agreement.

The three states have held up to 10 rounds of talks over the past two years and this is not the first round that ends in impasse. Talks will resume on Dec. 27 - 28, and will also involve the six ministers of water and foreign affairs.

Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan signed a preliminary agreement on the Ethiopian dam on March 23, during a meeting of the trio's top leadership in the Sudanese capital Khartoum.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam said at the time of the signing that his country will not accept that any harm is caused to the Nile river downstream countries, "specifically, the Egyptian people."